Zoysiagrass plant named &#39;faes1307&#39;

ABSTRACT

‘FAES1307’ is a new and distinct zoysiagrass (Zoysia japonica Steud.) variety distinguished at least by its medium leaf texture, high turfgrass quality, good drought tolerance, improved winter turfgrass color retention, and low incidence of large patch disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 2-2 LP. Compared to its parents and commercial checks, ‘FAES1307’ has a shorter canopy height and is a more prolific producer of stolons. It tends to have shorter leave lengths and moderate leaf widths. Its flag leaf height is similar to its female parent, ‘FAES 5309-12’ while its flag leaf width is similar to its male parent, ‘BA 123’. The seed head heights of ‘FAES 1307’ are shorter and consistent with the height of its female parent, ‘TAES 5309-12’. ‘FAES1307’ and its parents have narrower raceme widths; and shorter raceme lengths compared to to ‘Meyer’ and ‘SS-500’.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FEDERAL RESEARCH SUPPORT

This invention was made with government support under 2015-51181-24291awarded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United StatesDepartment of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.). The government has certain rightsin the invention.

Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: Zoysiajaponica x matrella.

Variety denomination: ‘FAES1307’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct perennialzoysiagrass variety (Zoysia japonica x Z. matrella) designated‘FAES1307’. ‘FAES1307’ is an F₁ hybrid that was produced in Gainesville,Fla. in 2007 by crossing ‘TAES 5309-12’ (unpatented Z. japonica Steud),as the female parent, with ‘BA 123’ (unpatented Z. matrella (L.) Merr.),as the male parent. ‘FAES1307’ was first asexually propagated inGainesville, Fla. in 2008 by obtaining vegetative cuttings of stolons,tillers, or rhizomes, each with a vegetative bud, and rooting them inpotting media. Asexually reproduced plants of ‘FAES1307’ have remainedstable and true to type through at least 6 successive cycles ofvegetative propagation. ‘FAES1307’ has been determined to be tetraploid(2n=4x=40). Compared to its parents, ‘FAES1307’ most closely resembles‘TAES 5309-12’.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

‘FAES1307’ is a perennial zoysiagrass that spreads by stolons andrhizomes and was identified in 2017 in view of its superior attributesfrom a collection of zoysiagrass plants that were evaluated forturfgrass quality traits in Citra, Fla. under cultivated conditions.‘FAES1307’ can be unambiguously distinguished based on its medium leaftexture, overall high turfgrass quality based on multiple experiments inFlorida, good shade tolerance, high turfgrass sod strength, and lowincidence of large patch disease caused by Rhizoctonia solanianastomosis group 2-2 LP. ‘FAES1307’ may be used as a turfgrass that issuitable for home lawns and commercial turf applications. The observedturfgrass quality and high turfgrass sod strength of ‘FAES1307’ shouldprovide an alternative zoysiagrass cultivar for use across the southernand central areas of the U.S. zoysiagrass adaptation zone. Additionally,‘FAES1307’ should be equally well-suited to other subtropical andtropical areas worldwide where zoysiagrass cultivars are currentlygrown.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This new zoysiagrass plant is illustrated by the accompanying photographof plants grown in a greenhouse in Gainesville, Fla., as provided inFIGS. 1 and 2. These photographs show the plant's typical form, foliage,and inflorescence. The colors shown are as true as can be reasonablyobtained by conventional photographic procedures.

FIG. 1—Shows a tiller of the claimed plant.

FIG. 2—Shows the inflorescence of the claimed plant

FIG. 3—Shows percent severity of large patch disease (Rhizoctoniasolani) in 2017 of ‘FAES1307’ in comparison to commercial andexperimental zoysiagrass genotypes from the 2013 National TurfgrassEvaluation Program zoysiagrass trial. Numbers over a column indicatethat the column entry was significantly different from the entry numberas determined by the following: 1=entry better than ‘SS-500’, 2=entrybetter than ‘Zeon’, and 3=entry better than ‘Meyer’.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description sets forth distinctivecharacteristics of ‘FAES1307’, as characterized in greenhouse and fieldconditions. Rooted plant material from asexual propagations was used asplanting stock for studying performance in field plots and forgreenhouse comparisons of morphological characteristics. ‘FAES1307’ hasnot been observed under all possible environmental conditions, and themeasurements given may vary when grown in different environments.Certain characteristics may also vary with plant age. The colordescriptions provided herein are based on The Royal HorticulturalSociety (R.H.S.) Colour Chart by The Royal Horticultural Society,London, Sixth Revised Edition. If any RHS color designations belowdiffer from the accompanying photographs, the RHS color designations areaccurate. Botanical assessments were obtained in Gainesville, Fla.

-   Morphological comparison of ‘FAES1307’ to commercial and    experimental genotypes:

The morphological characteristics of ‘FAES1307’ were compared to itsparents (‘TAES 5309-12’, Z. japonica and ‘BA 123’, Z. matrella) andcommercial cultivars (‘SS-500’, U.S. Pat. No. PP11,466P; ‘Zeon’, U.S.Pat. No. PP13,166P2; ‘Emerald’; and ‘Meyer’). Comparative measurementswere made using greenhouse grown plants in 8.9 cm diameter pots. Thepots were planted in October 2019 using five sprigs per pot and allowedto fully establish prior to measurements. The greenhouse environmentranged from nighttime lows of 60° F. and daytime highs of 90° F. Plantswere grown under natural lighting and fertilized using a solublefertilizer of 20-20-20 in four equal applications per month, equating toone pound of nitrogen per month. The pots were arranged in a randomizedcomplete block design with two runs of measurements made in 2020. Runone contained six replications with measurements taking place by repfrom 29 April to 6 May 2020. Run two contained five replications withmeasurements taking place by rep from 7 October to 9 October. For bothruns, pots were last trimmed two months before measurements. Pots weretrimmed to a canopy height of 5.0 cm and stolons were trimmed back tothe pot edge.

The number of stolons were counted for each pot and canopy height wasmeasured from the soil surface to the tallest leaf blades. Subsequently,three stolons were randomly removed from each pot. Using these stolons,stolon length was measured, the leaf length and width from the mostmature leaf arising from the first node (oldest node) of the removedstolon were measured. For flowering traits, three subsamples from eachpot were measured and included flag leaf height, seed head height, andculm length measured from the soil surface. Additionally, flag leafwidth, raceme width and length were measured, and the number ofspikelets counted.

‘FAES1307’ had the shortest canopy height in run one and the secondshortest in run two (Table 1). Its canopy heights were similar to‘Emerald’ and ‘Zeon’ in run one, and with ‘Emerald’ in run two. In bothruns, the canopy height of ‘FAES1307’ was shorter than ‘Meyer’,‘SS-500’, ‘BA 123’, and ‘TAES 5309-12’. ‘FAES1307’ produced the moststolons in each run. In run one ‘FAES1307’ was alone in the topstatistical group; however, stolon numbers of ‘Zeon’ and ‘TAES 5309-12’were similar in run two. ‘FAES1307’ always produced more stolons than‘SS-500’, ‘BA 123’, ‘Meyer’, and ‘Emerald’. For stolon length,‘FAES1307’ had the longest stolons compared to all other entries in runone. However, in run two, the stolon length of ‘FAES1307’ was notdifferent from any other entries (Table 1).

The leaf length of ‘FAES1307’ tended to be shorter but comparisons werenot consistent between runs (Table 1). In run one, ‘FAES1307’ was onlydifferent from ‘Meyer’ which had the longest leaves. In run two,‘SS-500’ had longer leaves, whereas ‘Emerald’ and ‘BA 123’ had shorterleaves. The leaf lengths of ‘FAES1307’, ‘TAES 5309-12’, and ‘Zeon werenot different in either run. The leaf width of ‘FAES1307’ was moderateamong the compared genotypes in both runs. In both runs, ‘Emerald’,‘Zeon’, and ‘BA 123’ had narrower leaf widths, and ‘Meyer’ and ‘SS-500’had longer leaf widths. Leaf widths were similar between ‘FAES1307’ andits parent, ‘TAES 5309-12’ in run two.

Considering flowering associated traits, ‘FAES1307’ consistently hadshorter flag leaf heights; however, its height was not different fromany entry in run one (Table 1). In run two, ‘Emerald’ had a shorter flagleaf height and ‘BA 123’ and ‘SS-500’ both had longer flag leaf heights.Flag leaf heights were always similar between ‘FAES1307’, ‘Meyer’, ‘TAES5309-12’ and ‘Zeon’. For flag leaf widths, there were few differences inrun one. For both runs, ‘FAES1307’ only had similar leaf widths to ‘BA123’. For seed head height, ‘FAES1307 was among the shorter entries inboth runs. In both runs, ‘FAES1307’ was similar with its parent, ‘TAES5309-12’, for seed head height. ‘BA 123’ was similar to ‘FAES1307’ witha short seed head in run one but was different in run two developing thetallest seed heads. ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’ consistently produced tallerseed heads. For culm length, ‘FAES1307’ was shorter in both runscompared to ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’ and similar in both runs to ‘Zeon’ and‘TAES 5309-12’. ‘BA 123’ had shorter seed heads in the second run. Formeasurements of inflorescence widths, ‘FAES1307’ was among the narrowerentries. It was not different in both runs from ‘Meyer’, and ‘SS-500’.In run one ‘FAES1307’ had a greater inflorescence width than ‘BA 123’and greater than ‘TAES 5309-12’ in run two. The inflorescence lengths of‘FAES1307’ were similar to ‘TAES 5309-12’ in both runs. ‘BA 123’ and‘Zeon’ had shorter lengths in run two while ‘Meyer’ and ‘SS-500’ hadlonger lengths in both runs compared to ‘FAES1307’. Lastly, ‘FAES1307’produced fewer spikelets per raceme than ‘Meyer’ and ‘SS-500’ andsimilar numbers of spikelets to ‘Zeon’, ‘TAES 5309-12’, and ‘BA 123’ forboth runs of measurements.

The following are additional unique and distinguishing characteristicsexhibited by ‘FAES1307’ when grown under the above greenhouseconditions:

-   Plant:    -   -   Growth habit.—A perennial plant that spreads by stolons and            rhizomes, and produces a dense, medium textured turfgrass.        -   Leaf blade color adaxial leaf surface.—137B moderate olive            green.        -   Leaf blade color abaxial leaf surface.—137B moderate olive            green.        -   Stolon color (in absence of light).—N144A strong yellow            green.-   Inflorescence: Produces primarily terminal spike-like racemes, with    spikelets on short appressed pedicels. The spikelets generally occur    singularly appressed against the slender rachis.    -   -   Culm stalk color.—138A moderate yellow green.        -   Glume color.—79D moderate purple.        -   Stigma color.—NN155B white.        -   Anther (fresh) color.—155A pale yellow green.-   Turf quality, shade tolerance, spring green-up, and fall color    retention comparison of ‘FAES1307’ to commercial and experimental    genotypes: ‘FAES1307’ was evaluated in field trials conducted in    Citra, Fla., Jay, Fla., Auburn, Ala., and College Station, Tex.    Plots at these locations were established using rooted plugs. In    these trials, turfgrass fall color retention, turfgrass spring    green-up, and turfgrass quality were evaluated using the industry    recognized 1 to 9 visual rating scale established by the National    Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) in which “9” indicates “best”    and “1” indicates “poorest.” Multiple ratings were taken over    several years until the end of 2016. As shown in Table 2, ‘FAES1307’    was compared to the experimental varieties ‘FAES1312’, ‘FAES1313’    and ‘FAES1319’, and commercial varieties ‘SS-500’, ‘Meyer’    (unpatented), and ‘Zeon’ (U.S. Pat. No. PP13,166). ‘FAES1307’ was    superior to ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’, but was not different from ‘Zeon’    in mean turfgrass fall color retention at the College Station, Tex.    and Citra, Fla. locations. ‘FAES 1307’ was superior to ‘SS-500’ and    ‘Zeon’ in spring turfgrass green-up at the Auburn, Ala. location,    but was similar to ‘Meyer’. ‘FAES1307’ was superior to ‘SS-500’,    ‘Meyer’, and ‘Zeon’ in turfgrass spring green-up at the Citra, Fla.    location. The 2015 annual average for turfgrass quality of    ‘FAES1307’ was superior to ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’, but was similar to    ‘Zeon’ at the Citra, Fla. location. The 2015 average for turfgrass    quality of ‘FAES1307’ was similar to ‘SS-500’, ‘Zeon’ and ‘Meyer’ at    the Jay, Fla. location. Long term performance of a new turfgrass    under multiple environments is most indicative of merit. ‘FAES1307’    was entered into several multi-year trials and with the NTEP 2013    National Zoysiagrass Trial. The 2013 NTEP Zoysiagrass Trial was    planted at 17 locations throughout the USA and included 35 entries    and utilized the zoysiagrass varieties ‘SS-500’, ‘Meyer’    (unpatented), and ‘Zeon’ (U.S. Pat. No. PP13,166) as check    varieties. Maintaining quality under shade conditions is an    important trait. ‘FAES1307’ was grown under 70 percent shade for    3-years in a non-NTEP trial in Hague, Fla. and compared to ‘SS-500’.    Additionally, ‘FAES1307’ was compared to ‘SS-500’, ‘Meyer’, and    ‘Zeon’ grown under shade in Riverside, Calif. as part of the NTEP    Zoysiagrass Trial. Turfgrass quality under shade was measured on a 1    to 9 rating scale where “9” indicates the best turfgrass quality    when grown in shade and “1” indicates the poorest turfgrass quality    when grown in shade. Turfgrass quality ratings under shade from    Hague, Fla. and Riverside, Calif. are shown in Table 3. Sod    strength, evaluated by North Carolina State University (NCSU),    Raleigh, N.C. (Table 3) was measured as the pounds of force required    to break a piece of sod. Percent severity of large patch    (Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 2-2 LP) was visually rated in    the Arkansas and Florida NTEP trials as the percentage of a plot    exhibiting symptoms of large patch disease. In the 2016    multi-location NTEP Zoysiagrass Trial, ‘FAES1307’ had higher average    turfgrass quality ratings than either ‘SS-500’ or ‘Meyer’, but was    not different from ‘Zeon’. When grown under 70% shade Hague, Fla.,    ‘FAES1307’ had superior turfgrass quality compared to ‘SS-500’ and    ‘FAES1313’ and ‘FAES1319’ but was not different from ‘FAES1312’. In    the shade trial at Riverside, Calif., ‘FAES1307’ was superior in    turfgrass quality to ‘SS-500’, ‘Meyer’, and ‘Zeon’, but was not    different from ‘FAES1313’ and ‘FAES1319’ . Measurements of sod    strength from the experiment at NCSU showed that ‘FAES1307’ was    superior to ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’ and to ‘FAES1312’, ‘FAES1313’ and    ‘FAES1319’.-   Disease response comparison of ‘FAES1307’ to commercial and    experimental genotypes: Disease response is an important    characteristic for new turfgrass cultivars. As illustrated in FIG.    3, ‘FAES1307’ had significantly lower severity of large patch    disease compared to ‘SS-500’ and ‘Meyer’ when evaluated in Florida.    ‘FAES1307’ had lower disease severity than ‘Meyer’ when evaluated in    Arkansas.

TABLE 1 Morphological comparisons between ‘FAES1307’, its parents andcommercial cultivars. Flag Flag Inflorescence Traits Canopy Stolon LeafLeaf Leaf Leaf Culm Height Stolon Length Length Width Height WidthHeight Length Width Length Spikelet (cm) Number (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm)(cm) (cm) (mm) (mm) Number Entry Run One FAES1307 4.6 14.3 39.5 1.6 0.183.5 0.12 5.8 2.4 2.4 13.2 13.3 5309-12 5.9 6.7 24.5 1.7 0.24 3.7 0.145.8 2.2 2.1 14.5 15.4 BA123 6.1 5.7 21.3 1.9 0.10 3.7 0.10 5.2 1.7 1.710.3 9.8 Emerald 5.3 3.3 13.7 1.8 0.13 4.3 0.10 7.5 3.7 2.7 17.1 18.3SS-500 6.4 1.8 14.1 2.0 0.30 3.7 0.14 8.3 5.0 2.5 24.0 27.4 Meyer 7.25.2 27.2 2.5 0.33 3.7 0.20 9.6 5.1 2.5 31.7 31.4 Zeon 5.2 4.8 20.0 1.80.13 3.4 0.10 6.4 3.3 3.2 13.9 16.1 lsd (0.05)^(§) 0.8 3.9 10.6 0.5 0.040.7 0.05 1.4 0.8 0.7 3.1 4.2 Entry Run Two FAES1307 10.0 33.8 36.9 3.80.20 7.6 0.7 11.1 6.7 1.6 20.2 15.7 5309-12 13.3 24.6 41.3 3.3 0.21 8.4— 11.5 5.2 1.2 19.0 15.0 BA123 13.7 14.4 31.1 2.6 0.10 13.7 0.4 16.2 3.61.5 15.5 15.6 Emerald 8.9 13.4 24.5 2.3 0.14 4.9 0.1 7.6 5.9 2.1 — 18.0SS-500 14.0 16.4 35.4 6.1 0.31 9.9 1.7 15.8 10.3 1.7 34.8 31.3 Meyer14.8 14.0 44.8 4.2 0.31 9.7 0.1 15.0 10.0 1.7 37.7 29.9 Zeon 12.0 32.038.6 4.2 0.13 5.8 0.1 7.9 5.2 1.8 16.3 16.3 lsd (0.05)^(§) 1.9 11.8 12.51.3 0.03 2.1 0.6 2.5 1.9 0.3 3.4 4.7 ^(§)Numbers within a column thatdiffered by the lsd (least significant difference) value aresignificantly different (p ≤ 0.05).

TABLE 2 Turfgrass fall color retention, spring green-up, and seasonalaverage quality of selected zoysiagrass genotypes. Turfgrass FallTurfgrass Spring Yearly Average Color Retention Green-Up TurfgrassQuality College Citra, Auburn, Citra, Citra, Jay, Entry Station, TX FLAL FL FL FL ‘FAES1307’ 6.3 5.8 8.4 8.0 5.5 — ‘FAES1312’ 5.7 5.3 8.7 6.85.7 6.4 ‘FAES1313’ 7.7 6.3 7.3 7.2 5.8 6.4 ‘FAES1319’ 7.0 6.3 7.2 6.85.6 6.6 ‘SS-500’ 4.3 2.7 6.6 6.0 4.1 6.2 ‘Meyer’ 3.3 2.7 8.4 3.0 3.1 6.3‘Zeon’ 7.3 5.0 6.6 5.3 4.6 5.9 lsd (0.05)^(§) 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.1 0.8 0.6^(§)Numbers within a column that differed by the lsd (least significantdifference) value are significantly different (p ≤ 0.05).

TABLE 3 Turfgrass shade tolerance, sod strength, and overall turfgrassquality evaluations of selected zoysiagrass genotypes. Overall 2016 NTEPShade Sod Turfgrass Tolerance Strength Quality Riverside, Hague,Raleigh, 11 Variety CA FL NC Locations ‘FAES1307’ 6.3 5.5 189 6.3‘FAES1312’ 4.7 6.0 77 6.6 ‘FAES1313’ 5.7 2.0 89 6.4 ‘FAES1319’ 5.7 4.561 6.7 ‘SS-500’ 4.3 3.0 40 5.7 ‘Meyer’ 4.0 — — 5.3 ‘Zeon’ 4.7 — 73 6.4lsd (0.05)^(§) 0.8 1.0 17 0.3 ^(§)Numbers within a column that differedby the lsd (least significant difference) value are significantlydifferent (p ≤ 0.05).

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct variety of zoysiagrass plantnamed ‘FAES1307’, as illustrated and described herein.